the worth and excellency of things by the impression they make upon our senses; and as these are more or less gratified and affected with them, we set a higher or lower value upon them. Since therefore spirits are a sort of beings that cannot touch or affect our bodily senses, it is impossible we should be competent judges of the true worth and value of them; and therefore in this matter we ought to be guided by the judgment of spirits, who must needs be supposed to have a more intimate acquaintance with one another's natures: and if we will be guided by these, we shall find the whole world of spirits, even from the highest to the lowest, unanimously rating the souls of men at an inestimable price and value. And to make this appear, I shall shew you the vast price there is set upon them.

1. By God the Father.

2. By God the Son.

3. By God the Holy Ghost.

4. By the holy angels.

5. By the devils.

1. Let us consider the vast price which God the Father hath set upon souls. For when he intended to form these noble beings, and transmit them into terrestrial bodies, that so being compounded with a sensitive nature, they might clasp the spiritual and animal worlds together; he being sensible of the vast hazards and infinite snares they would be exposed to, was so deeply concerned for their preservation, that he thought nothing too dear to save and secure them and foreseeing their fall from that terrestrial happiness which he originally designed them, notwithstanding the liberal care he had taken to preserve them in the state of innocence, he designed to

remove the scene of their happiness from earth to heaven, being resolved, if possible, to repair the loss of a terrestrial with a celestial paradise. For which end, instead of the covenant of innocence, the blessings whereof by their sin they had for ever forfeited, he introduces the covenant of repentance, that so by the help of this plank, after their general shipwreck, they might be preserved, and go safe to the shore of a happy eternity. And that by this covenant he might the more effectually recover them, he designed to grant it to them in such a way, and upon such a wise and weighty consideration, as might at once affect them with the greatest sense of his love and the deepest awe of his severity; that so, whilst by the former he allured, by the latter he might terrify to repentance to which end, he determined not to grant it to them upon any other consideration than that of another's suffering for them, and undergoing the punishment of their sin in their stead; that so, whilst he shewed his love to them, in admitting another to suffer for them, he might express his hatred to their sin, in not pardoning it without another's suffering. And that he might manifest this his love to them, and this his hatred to their sin, in the highest degree, as he admitted another to suffer for us, so he resolved to accept no meaner suffering than that of his own beloved Son. And that this his suffering might be the more effectual, he proposed to send him down to us, into this lower world, clothed in our natures, that so he might not only the more familiarly instruct us by his doctrine and example, but the more exactly personate us in undergoing the punishment of our sin; and upon his undertaking to undergo it, the most merciful Father

agreed to this covenant of mercy, by which he obliged himself to receive us into his favour upon our unfeigned repentance, and empowered his Son to govern us, according to the tenor of it, that is, to crown us with the rewards of it, if we repented, and inflict on us the punishments of it, if we went on in our impenitence. And that there might be nothing wanting to render this government of his Son successful, and us obedient to it, he also agreed, upon this his mighty undertaking, to substitute to him the Holy Ghost, to be the supreme minister of his government, that so by the agency of this vicarious power, he might bow and incline the hearts of men to submit unto him, and comply with the terms of this merciful covenant, in which their everlasting welfare is so abundantly provided for.

This is the mighty project, which, for the sake of the souls of men, the Father of spirits hath contrived, and upon which he hath acted and proceeded, even from their first fall to this very moment: and by this he hath most plainly expressed the high and great veneration that he hath of them; for doubtless, had they not been exceeding precious in his eyes, he would never have thought it worth the while to project and act such mighty things to redeem and save them. He would rather have left them to their own fate, and not have concerned himself about them, or not have concerned himself to that degree, as to make them the subjects of such a vast design. For all wise agents measure their designs by the worth and value of the things they aim at, and do never lay great projects for the sake of little trifles; and unless God had a mighty value for the souls of men, his making such vast preparations to

save them would be like that foolish emperor's raising a numerous army only to go and gather cockleshells.

2. Let us consider the vast price which God the Son hath set upon souls; for it is plain he valued them at that mighty rate, as that for their sakes he willingly undertook to execute this vast design of his Father, and that to save these precious beings he thought it would be very well worth his while to come down from heaven and veil his divinity in our natures; to put on the form of a servant, and make himself of no reputation; to live a miserable life, and die a painful and accursed death. And can we think he would ever have laid down so vast a price, as his glory and happiness, his life and blood amounts to, for things of a mean and inconsiderable value? Had he so low an esteem of his Father's bosom, and his own heavenly glory, as to part with them for trifles? such slight apprehensions of shame and sorrow, pain and misery, as to cast himself into them for the sake of beings he had little or no esteem of? Could any thing but what is inestimable countervail to that glory he parted with, and that misery he endured? or can you think those souls of little worth, which the Son of God thought worth his dying for? No, certainly, if we knew nothing of our souls but this, that the Son of God thought them a good purchase at the dear price of his bliss, his glory, and his blood; yet from thence we have infinite reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable beings, it being impossible that he, who doth so perfectly understand the worth and value of things, should ever be so overseen as to pay so vast a sum for slight and cheap commodities.

3. Let us consider the vast price which God the Holy Ghost hath set upon souls; for it is for their sakes that he doth so industriously operate in the kingdom of our Saviour, that he takes so much pains in it, as he doth, and hath always done ever since it was first erected, to drive on that blessed design of making the souls of men, the native subjects of it, happy. It is upon their account that he hath made so many revelations of God's will to the world, and confirmed them by so many miracles, that so he might extricate those precious beings out of those labyrinths of error in which they had involved and lost themselves, and direct them into the way to true happiness. And it is for their good that he still continues shedding forth his heavenly influences upon them; that he still inspires them with so many good thoughts, importunes them with such urgent motives, presses upon them with such earnest strugglings and vigorous efforts, not only of his preventing, but of his assisting grace too, that if possible he may awaken them into a sense of their danger, and excite and quicken them to pursue the methods of their own safety and happiness. So infinitely jealous is this blessed Spirit, lest these precious beings should miscarry, that though one would think them sufficiently safeguarded in their voyage through this dangerous sea under the convoy of their own reason, yet he dares not trust them to themselves, but bears them company all along, and keeps a watchful eye over them; and when any rock is nigh, he warns them of it; and when they are beset with evil spirits, those mischievous pirates that lie in wait to captivate and enslave them, he presently comes in to their assistance; and, unless they are resolved to